Meeting to put spotlight on HISD bonus pay

At the last turn of the century, the national spotlight shone on the Houston Independent School District, with President Bush recruiting then-Superintendent Rod Paige as his secretary of education.

Texas' largest school system made headlines for notable gains in student test scores, and in 2002, with Paige overseeing historic changes to federal education policy, HISD earned honors from the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation as the nation's best urban school district.

HISD's meteoric rise reversed direction fast, however, after a 2003 state investigation found the district had failed to report nearly 3,000 student dropouts. With that, critics deemed the so-called Texas Miracle a myth.

This week, HISD is on a national stage once again as more than 800 superintendents, school board members and leaders from the biggest districts in the country descend on the city for a conference hosted by the Council of the Great City Schools.

HISD's teacher performance pay plan, which ranks among the nation's largest, is expected to be a hot topic of conversation, especially with both presidential candidates — Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama — expressing some support for financial incentives for top educators.

"The Broad Prize certainly put Houston into the national spotlight, and more recently it is the work they have been doing there in the pay-for-performance front, " said education consultant Christopher Cross, a former assistant secretary of education under President Bush's father.

"As we've seen in the presidential debates, this issue is being talked about by both sides," Cross added. "Whatever happens, Houston will be carefully scrutinized relative to what might be done on a national scale."

HISD's plan, approved by the school board in 2006, rewards teachers, principals, high-level administrators and other school employees based on student test scores. Teachers whose students performed better than expected could earn bonuses topping $7,800 last year. The average payout this year was about $2,100.

While watched nationally, HISD's plan is not universally embraced on a local level. Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, remains highly critical, saying the district's program is "a study in how to do everything incorrectly and how to have your staff absolutely livid."

Teachers and other employees erupted in anger and even tears after the first bonuses were doled out in 2007 and the individual awards were made public. Critics blasted the plan as unfair and divisive, and when HISD asked 99 employees to return their bonuses due to miscalculations, the criticism soared.

The rage died down after this year's payout, which was based on a revised formula, but complaints continued, with teachers of elective classes frustrated they were not eligible for the biggest checks and others skeptical of the complex calculations.

HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra credits the performance pay program with helping raise student test scores, though he said the money is not the main factor.

"What's the key?" he said. "Honestly, we've not really introduced any magic reading program, magic math program, or extraordinary technology into the district.

"What has really made a difference is changing the focus and culture of the district to center around student growth. Our performance pay system is centered around that."

Put simply, the bonus formula rewards teachers whose students improved on standardized exams, regardless of whether they passed them. Saavedra said he wants the focus on stretching every student, whether they are gifted or several grade levels behind.

In an interview this week, Saavedra revealed that he is considering another atypical pay plan: Within two years, he said, the district could pay some of its best teachers around $100,000. Right now, an HISD teacher with at least 29 years of experience and a master's degree earns a base salary of $68,590.

Over the last three years, HISD has seen double-digit gains on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exams in reading, math and science. In science, the district's weakest subject, passing rates increased from 51 percent in 2005 to 70 percent this year.

Large gaps remain between racial groups, but Saavedra said the district is making "significant" progress toward closing them. For example, he said, the gap between Hispanic and Anglo students fell from 33 points last year to 27 points this year.

But HISD's high school performance is especially spotty, with some schools last year having no students pass any college-level Advanced Placement exams. HISD also failed to meet the federal No Child Left Behind standards for two years in a row, and the district still is plagued with a dropout problem.

Saavedra estimates the district's dropout rate is 35 percent or 40 percent, while some researchers put it around 50 percent.

"Yeah, we have a high school problem," Saavedra acknowledged. "As a matter of fact, the country has a high school problem. We still lose too many kids in spite of our efforts to try to get kids to stay in school and not drop out."

Bob Sanborn, who analyzes Houston-area schools as president of the nonprofit Children at Risk, praises HISD's few elite high schools but blasts the district for not being more creative with its traditional campuses that are struggling.

"They're sort of treading water," Sanborn said. "I really applauded Abe Saavedra for trying to do something different with pay for performance. But HISD should be the most avant-garde school district in the country, trying all sorts of new ideas. They're absolutely just playing it safe."

Among urban school districts, HISD has fallen some from its prominence during the days of Paige, according to several education observers.

"When folks talk about things nationally, they talk about what the Chicago model is or what the New York model is. I don't think there's a sense of what the Houston strategy is in a broad sense," said Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

For his part, Paige, who stepped down as education secretary in 2005, said he hopes the tenets of the No Child Left Behind law stay in place, whoever is elected president. The law, based on Texas' school accountability system, holds schools accountable for the test scores of children of different races, ethnicities and income levels.

"For me, the achievement gap is the overlooked civil rights issue of our generation," Paige said. "I can say emphatically that the culture of education, the culture of public schools, shifted because of No Child Left Behind."

But parts of the law, which is up for renewal, have drawn criticism from numerous school leaders, including Saavedra. On Wednesday, the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents 66 major city districts, released an open letter to the next president of the United States.

The council asked for help attracting and retaining effective teachers, an expansion of early childhood education, more funding, American education standards and a national urban policy that addresses school reform and city renewal.

"We ask you, as the next President of the United States, to work with us to make urban public education the best in the world," the letter concludes.